London: Prince William has dismissed rumours that he could become the next King in place of the Prince of Wales.

Despite his surge in popularity following his engagement to Kate Middleton, royal aides insist William has “no desire to climb the ladder of kingship”.

Two recent polls by ICM and YouGov that found that most people believe he would make a better king than his father and think that Prince Charles should stand aside for his son.

“There is no question in Prince William’s mind that the Prince of Wales will be the next monarch,” a daily quoted a senior royal aide as saying.

“Prince William is aware of the speculation, but he is very thick-skinned. He knows his place in the Royal family and he considers himself to be very low down the food chain. He has no desire to climb the ladder of kingship before his time,” he added.

Royal sources also said that Prince William did not share his late mother’s view that he is more suited to the role of king than the Prince of Wales.

As a matter of fact, Princess Diana gave a candid television interview to the BBC in which she said that the role of king would bring “enormous limitations” to Prince Charles, and that Prince William may be better suited to succeed the Queen as monarch.

A royal source said, “Prince William is enormously proud of his mother and all her achievements, but that is so far off what he thinks. He is very close to his father and incredibly supportive of him and his work as the Prince of Wales.

“Both of them will let nature take its course. There is no suggestion from anywhere within the institution that a generation will be skipped.”

Added to that, the Prince works as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot at RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales.
A royal aide said, “The Prince is not yet a full-time member of the Royal family – first and foremost he is an RAF officer – and he will continue in his role at RAF Valley until at least 2013.”

“Kate will be pursuing her own projects in time, but the plan is very much for her to be introduced to the role and shown the ropes, and not plunging in unprepared.”

Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC, the Liberal Democrat peer and constitutional lawyer, said, “The mechanism of succession is not based on a popularity contest, so all the polls in the world about who should be the next monarch are irrelevant.”

“The public need to accept that we have a monarchical system based on the medieval male descent principle where the crown passes from the monarch to the next direct male heir,” he added.